


acquiesce

by ObscureReference



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, During Canon, Fire Emblem Support, M/M, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 06:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10893615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObscureReference/pseuds/ObscureReference
Summary: “So I'd much prefer you remain my retainer forever.” It is not the ideal life Leo never truly allows himself to dream about, but it is close to bliss. However, there are other factors at hand. “Let's say you do disappear. Fall through a void and into another world.”Odin’s eyes flicker away. Leo’s tactician brain realizes he has Odin at the disadvantage somehow, but that is hard to fathom when Leo feels like the only one losing.--Leo and Odin's A Support; Leo's POV.





	acquiesce

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: The dialogue here is ripped straight from Leo and Odin's A Support, so none of the speech is original at all. Leo's thoughts and narration are all from me, however.
> 
> It's finals week, and I've been finally playing the Revelation route in FE: Fates, though I haven't finished yet. I'm craving to read/write Odin/Leo or Odin/Leo/Niles and haven't gotten around to it from lack of time and lack of coherency in my daydreams to make a solid plot for now. But boy would I love some. Here's some minor angst instead. (I wish the Awakening Kids didn't have to leavr Nohr :C )

“The point is,” Leo says, unsure he’ll ever be used to the single-minded intensity Odin offers when he is speaking and unsure if he ever wants to be. “I never expected success on your part. These were futile errands, things I'd never send even our best soldiers to do. That's a large part of why I came to trust and value you as a retainer. Which is why I can't send you on those sorts of missions now.”

Odin shifts his weight. Leo can see the gears turning in his head. For all he speaks as if living in a fairy tail, Odin is not a stupid man.

“Ah,” Odin says, his surprise a puff of barely audible air. “So that's why you warmed up to me seemingly out of the blue.” He smiles as if reliving a memory, and Leo is nodding before he is even finished speaking.

Leo remembers how he had been back then. Pride more easily wounded than now, personality a little more withdrawn, even with his family—with Niles—nipping at his heels. Niles had been a good choice. A choice Leo had made. Odin’s sudden presence had been nothing short of a sledgehammer hurtling into Leo’s carefully constructed house of iron and family and newfound Niles.

But Leo is nothing if not smart enough to build from the ground up.

And he’s smart enough to know building the walls back up with Odin inside of them has been nothing but a good idea. So while it might be a little self-indulgent, Leo doesn’t mind giving out a little extra praise than normal. Loyalty begets honesty. Odin deserves nothing short of the truth now.

“Yes. I was impressed by your skill and drive. Before long, it was clear I had found in you an invaluable ally. And because of this, I cannot send you on such dangerous and pointless missions. Now do you understand?”

He must. Odin’s head is not empty, for all he pretends some days.

Odin’s mouth twists before Leo finishes, and Leo already knows he doesn’t want to hear whatever he’s about to say.

“Yes, milord, but—“

Leo cuts him off. “No arguments, Odin. I don't know what I would do if I lost you.”

And isn’t that unfathomable? It’s still the truth. It’s just an unpredictable one. The Leo of a few years ago would have found a future with Odin as his retainer… unpleasant, at best. And now Leo can’t fathom a world without him.

Odin craves adventure. He’s loyal to Leo almost to a fault, but Leo knows Odin would be climbing mountains if Leo let him, discovering impossible crystals and vanquishing dragons near single-handedly in Leo’s name, all the while narrating his thoughts to the open air and anyone unwitting enough to be caught up in the (sometimes faux) drama. The thought is as ridiculous as it is pleasing. Leo’s lips nearly quirk upwards despite the downward twist of Odin’s own.

The truth of the matter is, Leo really _doesn’t_ know what he’d do if he lost Odin. Odin is Leo’s most recent retainer. He has lived in a world without Odin before, but now that he has had a world _with_ Odin, Leo does not want to go back. He has been with Odin every day for the past few years, and a world in which Leo wakes up to find Odin no longer at his side is a bleak one, to put it mildly.  Certain feelings a prince shouldn’t have aside, Odin is valuable. Not just as a comrade but as a friend.

Personally valuable. To Leo.

The thought of Odin going off on his own, leaving Leo in the castle while Odin fought his battles _(alone),_ struggled _(alone),_ possibly bled to death _(alone)_ in some far off corner of the globe for something much more insignificant than Odin’s life—

The thought is enough to kill Leo’s smile before it starts.

He takes a beat too long to answer, but Leo doesn’t think he’s made too large a misstep when he says, “I need you and Niles by my side. Even after we've restored peace to this world. That is, after all, when the real work will actually begin.”

For some reason, that only seems to make Odin more uneasy.

“Even after we’ve restored peace?” Odin repeats. Leo can sense Odin’s next words before he says them.

Leo had suspected this. Not specifics, exactly, but the way Odin said things sometimes… The way he phrased the future… It had always been as if he never expected to see it. 

Odin’s past has always been vague, and Leo has never pried.

As for the future…

Leo had always hoped—

Well. Hoping is for the foolish or those willing to sit idly by and watch the present pass. Leo is willing to carve his own future. 

“Of course. Is there a problem?” Leo asks this knowing there is.

“No, milord,” Odin says. Leo does not allow himself the luxury of relaxing before Odin continues, “But... suppose I were to vanish after the fighting was over. You would take on a new retainer, would you not?”

Leo does not like that word. _“Vanish.”_ Odin had only rarely hinted as his leaving in the past, but Leo has heard the way Laslow and Selena phrase their leaving as well.

 _“Vanish.”_ How absurd. As if they would all turn into smoke and drift into the sky one day. As if they would disappear into thin air.

As if Odin has no choice in the matter, someday unwillingly phasing out of existence between one breath and the next.

Leo is no tyrant. He will not order Odin to stay if he wishes to go.

But Leo does not wish he go at all.

 _Where is home?_ He wants to ask. _Is it not here? Do you not feel at ease here ~~with me~~? What is missing here that I cannot provide?_

It cannot just be wanderlust. Something bigger tugs at Odin’s heartstrings. Odin is on one end of the tether and whatever he craves is on the other, and Leo is nowhere in the middle.  

But such thoughts are dangerously close to waxing poetic, and Leo is no poet. He is only a man. He is a prince. Even with Xander on the throne, he has responsibilities and no time to chase after magicians who do not want him to follow.

 _“Would you take on a new retainer?”_ Odin has asked.

“Yes,” Leo answers after a beat. “I suppose I would. I would have no choice.”

Odin nods, satisfied, some of the tension leaking out of his shoulders. “Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

They could stop there—should stop there, really—but Leo cannot smother one last burst of honesty that comes flowing past his lips. If he cannot have Odin, he can at least have this moment.

“There aren’t many like you,” Leo says. When he looks Odin in the eye, Leo hopes he reads all the things Leo is too duty-bound not to say. “I think it would be much harder to go on. Any successes might even feel a little... hollow, without you there. Bittersweet.”

Moments like this with Odin are heavy and thick, like honey. Leo can imagine how bitter that flavor could become if Odin were gone.

Odin’s face softens, and Leo wonders what it would be like to wake up to that face, in another life. “Milord…”

“So I'd much prefer you remain my retainer forever.” It is not the ideal life Leo never truly allows himself to dream about, but it is close to bliss. However, there are other factors at hand. “Let's say you do disappear. Fall through a void and into another world.”

Odin’s eyes flicker away. Leo’s tactician brain realizes he has Odin at the disadvantage somehow, but that is hard to fathom when Leo feels like the only one losing.

If he really is losing Odin, then it is only fair he ask something in return, even if it is not the harrowing quest Odin wants.

It is not the real question Leo wants to ask, but he already knows what the answer to that would be.  

“I would still like you to carry your title with you,” Leo says. “That way, I'll know there will always be some connection between us. And then, when we begin our peacetime work, I'll know I have your blessing.”

Leo would give Odin a million gifts, if only he asked. But since he wants none, Leo only thinks it fair he asks for something instead.

Wherever Odin ended up—whether it be the far reaches of the outer realm or right outside Leo’s bedroom door—the idea that he would still use Leo’s title, that Leo could claim a belonging on some part, filled his chest with warmth. Perhaps it was not as strong as the tether that tied Odin back home, but it was a connection nonetheless.

Odin ponders him for a moment. “Another world, eh? Hm.”

The gears are turning behind Odin’s eyes again. Leo loves to watch him think.

For a moment Leo almost believes Odin is going to offer the truth, but something makes him change his mind. Odin stares at Leo’s face, his back straightens, and then—

Leo can tell the moment Odin makes his decision from the way his head cocks to the side. Leo’s seen him do it a thousand times; it’s the signature move of Odin dismissing a thought. Leo wishes he knew what he was lacking that made Odin dismiss him so.

(But it is cruel to phrase it that way. It is only Leo’s spirits that have him do so. Odin has never dismissed him, even if Leo’s heart aches to say otherwise.)

“Thank you, Lord Leo.” Odin’s voice carries only sincerity. “It would be an honor to remain your retainer for life. I would follow you into the jaws of oblivion and back, were it not for…”

Something is on the tip of Odin’s tongue. He swallows it back down.

“Well, anyway,” Odin says, looking at Leo with the kind of intensity most men could not dream of conjuring. “Thank you.”

Leo shakes his head. “No, Odin. Thank you. You have ever been a loyal retainer to me. But, more importantly, you have always been a good friend. I will always remember you as such.”

When Odin smiles, he lights up like the sun.

“And I you, milord.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave a comment below or hmu at my [tumblr!](http://someobscurereference.tumblr.com/)


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